By Virginia Winder

Taranaki's only native lizard has colours befitting the region's sports teams.

While it has no black, it's definitely got the amber.

The Taranaki gold striped gecko was "discovered" in 1977 by New Plymouth pharmacist David Wilkinson.

He got hooked on reptiles two years before when he got his hands on some of the slinky creatures. "I caught some skinks at home and the kids said 'Daddy can we keep them?'. So I put them in an aquarium and they (the kids) lost interest."

So David took over care of the creatures, learning about their habits and needs. To do this he visited New Plymouth's public library (now Puke Ariki), where he found 10 books on lizards. "Which was really marvellous," he says

"I let it be known around town that I was interested in lizards," he says.

Strange things would be passed over the counter at New Plymouth's Friendly Dispensary where David was the manager.

Climbing up the wall

Then came a late-night phonecall. "One of the directors, Hugh Philpott, in Turi Street, rang me up to say he had caught a lizard on the wall of his garage and was I interested?

"I thought 'that's funny'. I just couldn't visualise a skink climbing up a wall."

That's because it wasn't one.

The next day, David examined the reptile first hand. "That was the first Taranaki gold striped gecko I had ever seen."

But at that stage, he didn't know what he was looking at. "They were not recognised in their own right," says David, who is now a committee member of the New Zealand Herpetological Society.

The gecko came under the umbrella of a species known as Hoplodactylus pacificus.

"At that time there was a whole raft of different brown geckos," David says.

Fellow New Zealand committee members Barbara Watkins and Heather Barton, both of New Plymouth, say that in the 1970s little research had been done on native lizards.

David forged the way in Taranaki.

Buckets of geckos

Gorgeous Gecko: Heather Barton holds her Taranaki gold-striped gecko with great care.

To add to his early gecko collection, he wrote to schools around coastal Taranaki asking that if they caught any, could they call him.

Heather says that coastal Taranaki proved to be a lizard treasure trove. "When my husband did rural fuel deliveries, the children had bought in buckets of lizards (to school)."

The coast was kind to David too. Pungarehu School provided him with a male and female gecko, which he bred.

He continued to collect the lizards, recording where they were found. Since 1975, he has mapped 36 colonies from Mohakatino in north Taranaki to Manutahi, south of Hawera.

The more David learnt about and studied the Taranaki gecko, the more he became convinced it was a separate species.

The one and only…

In 1977, he wrote an article pointing out why this gecko was unique.

Those points of difference included:

• All specimens have a variation of an arrow marking on the head.
 
• They have a number of long, dark stripes along their bodies, divided by lighter stripes of the same colour.
 
• Babies are born with the stripes and no other pattern has been seen (H. pacificus has many different patterns).
 
• Specimens are found only on the Taranaki coastal strip and on Mana Island, off the Kapiti Coast.

"Although presently classified as a variation of H. pacificus, I am hopeful that some of the above points may assist in the eventual reclassification of the 'Taranaki Gold Stripe Gecko' as a distinct species in its own right."

A class of its own

That happened in 1980, when zoology professor Joan Robb photographed and examined the gecko.

She agreed that this gecko was not like the others and they were reclassed as Hoplodactylus chrysosireticus, and officially given the common name, Taranaki gold-striped gecko.

David says the recognition made his lizard collection a tradable commodity. "When they were recognised in their own right, other collections wanted them," he says.

By the end of March 1982, he had 41 Taranaki specimens. "I had captured the market."

Like a rugby selector keen to inject flair into the Taranaki side, David brought in outsiders to boost his bounty. "I built up my collection quite rapidly, mainly because I had that group of Taranakis."

In other words, he swapped gold-stripes for more exotic gecko from around the country and now has none in his collection.

But Heather does.

Velvet beauties head for flax

Not This Way: A hand stops the Taranaki gold-striped gecko from running off the table.

She carefully takes one out of a portable cage, strokes its velvety back and talks to it quietly, lovingly, like a mother to a child.

A gecko in the hand feels cool and its broad, padded feet cling to skin like delicate suckers. The inside of its mouth and flicking tongue are light pink.

Placed on the dining table at Barbara's place, the gecko sprints for cover. Gentle hands head it off and the gecko is placed into its bush-lined cage.

Having the right habitat for the lizards is extremely important, the trio says.

In nature, the creatures head for flax bushes.

David has studied their movements and believes flax is their natural habitat.

He came to this conclusion after watching a digging machine pick up a flax bush at Manutahi in south Taranaki. "The flax was lifted up in the air and these lizards started falling out of it. That's when I first got the idea that a flax bush is the gecko's natural habitat."

Food and drop-in haven

He went back to all the places geckos had been found along the coastal strip and discovered that in each case, there was a flax bush close by.

Add the fact that the lizard has markings similar to flax and the native plant becomes a perfect safe haven for a gold-striped refugee - and a place to dine.

The leaves and rubbish that collect around the base harbour insects for geckos to feast on, while providing cover from predators. At night, the lizards climb up the blades to catch moths and other flitting food.

"And if a predator comes, they simply drop down to the centre of the bush and scamper away," David says.

While they are categorised as nocturnal, gold-stripes do enjoy sunbathing - especially pregnant females.

The Taranaki gecko has a gestation period of six to nine months and gives birth to two babies once a year.

Babies not eggs

"That's what makes New Zealand geckos so special," Barbara says.

David nods: "All the other geckos in the world lay eggs, except one variety in New Caledonia and all the ones in New Zealand."

The Taranaki creatures have adapted to their world.

"They have been very successful at getting along with mankind. Generally speaking, man goes out and destroys their habitat and the cat goes with him and it's a disaster," David says.

"But Taranaki gold-striped geckos are found around human habitation like hay sheds, pump sheds, between sheets of corrugated iron, and wood piles."

Barbara says she has seen signs of gold-stripes living around her place in New Plymouth. "There's a colony living somewhere in this house," she says. "I found a female at the entrance and a sloughed skin inside the basement - and I live on Devon Street (East) in the middle of town!

"I think they must be fairly intelligent because they have learnt to adapt quickly. Other geckos have not adapted at all."

Feral cats, ferrets and flying things

The tail-dropping reptiles even manage to escape the claws of cats. David reckons that's because they slink into narrow spaces where felines can't get them.

Cats - especially those breeding in the wild - along with stoats and ferrets, moreporks, blackbirds and kingfishers are the worst enemies of the lizards.

There is also a new predator - a South African preying mantis that grows far larger than the New Zealand native one. This invader eats baby geckos, but the New Plymouth lizard lovers get their own back.

"I collect their egg roes and give them to the gecko and they stuff their little faces," Barbara says.

Like having children

People are also arch enemies - but there are laws against taking geckos from the wild.

The 60 New Zealand species are protected by law and humans can no longer collect and keep them. Those who have them, like David, Barbara and Heather, have licences to do so.

These keepers are learned in the ways of the gecko; know how to handle the creatures; understand their wants and needs; and how to make cosy cages.

And they have a word of caution for those keen to set up habitats, apply for licences from the Department of Conservation and set up their own collections.

"You have to be prepared to be around for the next 20 years," Heather says.

For her, the commitment is akin to having children.

Little gold-striped ones, with velvet skin and unblinking eyes…